Halloween 2009, Part 1

Advance warning: True to form, this turned into a lengthy post with lots of blah-blah-blah, yet I can't bring myself to make any more cuts. So if you want to hear the whole nerd-tastic spiel, then read on, but if you just want to get to the photos, you should scroll down.

Upon learning that I design and build costumes for theatre and dance for a living, strangers often remark that I must always have amazing Halloween costumes. This can drive me nuts. For one thing, it can feel like a lot of pressure, when I'm running around like mad working on costumes for actors and dancers, and then someone expects me to also develop a brilliant costume for myself. I could also go off on how offensive such remarks can feel to someone in my profession, because developing a vision for an entire ensemble of performers is a so much more complicated (and, it must be said, usually far more intellectual) pursuit than developing a Halloween costume for myself. But that's all I will say about that.

In truth, I love Halloween and its excuse to wear a costume just as much as the next gal, and I did have some pretty cool costumes in high school and undergrad. But since then, through grad school and my career path to date, I've been so perpetually busy and/or exhausted that I have only bothered with a costume in two of the last eight years. But the stars have all aligned perfectly this year, and I'm about to lend some credence to the remarks of said strangers. Seriously, the timing couldn't be better: 1) Halloween is on a Saturday this year, and there is a party I can go to, and I had a one-week-early Halloween-themed ballroom dance social to attend this past Saturday; 2) the production schedule for the shows I'm working on is such that, for once, Halloween does not land just before or just after a show opening, so I can afford the time to do something for myself and even go out on the weekend; 3) I happened last week upon a completely insensible, not-appropriate-for-work-or-errands-or-even-going-out-clubbing (the latter of which I don't do anyhow), silvery, scrunchy, delicious skirt in the window of one of the tacky cheapie shops where the high school girls (and, um, I?) shop in Philly, and I HAD TO have it.

Which meant that it had to become part of a Halloween costume, because when the heck else am I going to be able to use it? Which meant that I actually had to do a Halloween costume this year.

So I bought it, took it home, modeled it with my nearly-just-as-insensible-and-also-somewhat-tacky silver boots, and tried to figure out what I could possibly do with it: "What's silvery and metallic? A robot! The Tin Man! Aluminum foil! Garbage cans! Those windowshades my mom once used to protect the dashboard in her car!" And then I thought of something so silly, so nutty, so corny, that I HAVE to do it. And I've been working on it a bit each day. But I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it in time to wear for the ballroom social this past Saturday, so I went with the Tin (Wo)man idea, which is totally cheating because I already was Tin Woman for one Halloween in undergrad. I should share pictures of that some day. That year, I made my not only my costume, but also the costumes of friends who were Dorothy, the Cowardly Lioness, and a very sexy Scarecrow.

But I digress. I present Tin Woman v2.0:


Throwing this together was actually ridiculously simple. I purchased a pair of those wonderfully tacky silver metallic leggings that are in almost all the teen-focused clothing stores in Philly right now, basted a red felt heart to a sweater from my closet, and rigged our kitchen funnel with elastic. The "oil" shooting out the top in party-favor fashion is simply what happened when I safety-pinned the elastic in place and decided not to bother trimming or hiding it.


I loved wearing this, and I even managed to dance all night in the boots - rumba, bachata, waltz, tango, foxtrot, hustle, swing, cha-cha, viennese waltz, you name it. I had brought along my ballroom dance shoes, thinking I would feel the need to change into them at some point, but nope. It was awesome. I felt like a princess! A princess with tacky thigh-high boots! A costume warrior princess! Woo-hoo!!!!!

But this Tin Woman costume was just a place-holder for what is to come, if my plan succeeds. Before I went to bed that night, the funnel was in the dishwasher, the elastic was back in my stash, the red heart was un-stitched, and the sweater was tossed in the wash. Like my dreamy night of dancing, and like Cindarella's pumpkin coach, it became only a memory.

With luck, a bit of creative rigging, and courage in the face of potential public wacktitude, I hope to have a most amusing "Halloween, Part 2" post to share with you early next week.

Accepting Autumn, featuring a refashion

So, this is what I wore on Monday of last week (yeah, I don't think I will ever be one of those bloggers who manage to photograph and post on the same day), when I was starting to accept the fact that it was getting to be time for scarves, coats, gloves, legwarmers, boots, etcera. And boy was this a good thing, because toward the end of last week and over the weekend, it got frickin' ridiculously cold for October in Philly. Then it went and got up to 70 degrees today. I'm SO CONFUSED.


But the main reason I photographed this is that I'd like to feature more of the things I refashion or make, and this dress/tunic (the store marketed it as a "dress," but with my legs being so long and with the bottom layer being sheer, they've got to be kidding) is refashioned.


This was its first outing. When I bought it, I knew it was a completely insensible purchase. I failed to get a "before" photo, but here are some "in progress" photos. Try to picture as it was originally, four tiers with no waist or midriff definition, making me look like a dumpy, frumpy box. Take my word for it, it was unflattering.



Elastic to the rescue! It turned the top tier into a fitted bodice rather than a frumpy tier, then I trimmed the fabric that stuck out below it after it was stitched in place. The bow you see above was part of one long strip of fabric that served as the shoulder straps and gathered the neckline. I cut the bow, closed-up the center front slit invisibly, secured the shoulder straps in place, and used the bow fabric to make a belt to cover the ugly elastic.


It's secured at three spots across the back, then hooks and bars under the goofy flower. Since it's not stretchy fabric, I couldn't just stitch it in place over the elastic all around, as I wouldn't be able to put it on then.


I had intended it as an addition to my summer wardrobe, but I guess it's going to have to celebrate its infancy as a layered piece over the winter.

International Wear A Dress A Day Week + Celebrate the Newly-Painted Office Corner Week

Having just completed Jane's Second Annual Capsule Wardrobe Challenge with rather unadventurous results, I jumped right onto the International Wear A Dress A Day Week bandwagon for last week. I also designated it as Celebrate the Newly-Painted Office Corner week, a correlation that becomes obvious in some of these photos. I bet you can't guess what one of my favorite colors is?

Monday:





I purchased this cuff from Etsy artist/crafter TrilbyMade, totally stealing Erin's style. ;-)

Tuesday:


The ladder-matching was totally unplanned, I swear.





Wednesday:





Thursday:





Friday:






I LOVED Wear A Dress A Day Week, can't you tell?

But in truth, the outfit I have worn the most over the past few weeks looks a bit more like this, the painting/cleaning grubbies I keep at work:


The costume build for the next show is unusually small so far, so my students and I have been tackling some costume shop improvement projects that I've had on my wishlist for years. We finished painting the laundry/dye room this week, and I decided I really should clean and repair the laundry vent before we put everything back. This was perhaps the grossest project I have ever tackled in my five-plus years at this job. Should you ever decide to clean out your dryer ventilation pipe... you've been warned!

I'd consider doing a "Celebrate the Newly-Painted Laundry/Dye Room" week, but I don't own very much lime green.

Jane's Capsule Wardrobe Challenge

I'd been thoroughly looking forward to Jane's Capsule Wardrobe Challenge from the moment it was announced. Then life got in the way, and I practically forgot about it until I saw Jane's post of her Day 1 outfit last Monday, when I had already gone to work fully-dressed in one of my stand-by outfits. Fortunately, my stand-buy outfit included lots of basic pieces that go well with many other pieces. Unfortunately, most of those basic pieces were black, meaning that this capsule wardrobe was not likely to be very adventurous...

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[This is the only purse I use on a daily basis. I never show it in pictures, but it goes everywhere with me, like a watch or a wedding ring, along with a black leather tote bag so purely functional that I didn't think it should count as one of my five accessories. I only own one other purse, a black satin one for formal occasions. Crazy, huh?]

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I finished planning my outfits for the week during the bus ride home on Monday, since it was going to be a late night.


I decided I'd let the black jacket serve as my one piece of permitted outerwear, something I regretted when it got really cold around mid-week. I barely took it off for the rest of the week. To these five accessories, one piece of outerwear, and three wardrobe pieces, I added seven more wardrobe pieces:

[boring-but-essential basic black cotton leggings]

And now, the not-very-adventurous results...

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

I wore this skirt as a dress once before, but on that occasion, I simply safety-pinned elastic in place as temporary shoulder-straps because I knew I'd never be taking off the cardigan I was wearing over them (girfriend seriously does not handle strapless dresses well; just take my word for it). This capsule challenge motivated me to again attempt to wear this skirt as a dress, but wishing for a more lasting solution, I refashioned it by assembling straps out of old trim and ribbon.

I permently stitched the straps in place at the back neckline/waistline, and installed hooks at the front neckline/waistline. So it can now be easily converted from a skirt into a dress-with-shoulder-straps within seconds.